The scrub life continued this week. More and more anatomy, but this week’s focus being upper limb. I’ll be honest, I reeaaaally like anatomy. When I went to the gym this week, before I would use a weight lifting machine or use the dumbbell to work a specific muscle, I would think about the muscles I’ld be working, its different actions and innervation. Geeky I know, but it makes it so much more fun and interesting. Right now, my trapezius and levator scapulae muscles are killing me from an intense lifting session I had 2 days ago. I blame all the dumbbell shrugs, barbell rows, and lateral raises I did. It was a GREAT back day.

On a different note, my quest to explore different specialities also continued this week. Since school’s started, I’ve shadowed once in the labor & delivery unit (ObGyn), and radiation oncology. This Thursday, I shadowed an ophthalmologist (an eye surgeon). Why ophthalmology? Well it’s one of those specialties medical students don’t get exposed to until like 4th year when you request it as an elective. So legit very little exposure. Also, it’s one of the few specialties that has a nice balance of surgery AND medicine – which is something I’ve been on the hunt for. Basically, a significant number of your patients you’ll see for several years and form relationships with (longitudinal care), and at the same time, you also get to do surgery. Another major plus: the hours aren’t as crazy as other surgical specialties. Dope right?! Anyhoo, the ophthalmology department here at OSU is pretty open on letting medical students shadow and actually encourage us to reach out if we have an interest. So I took the opportunity and shadowed in the clinic.

Let me just say right now that I was surprised by how busy it was. I guess it’s just never occurred to me how common eye problems actually are. The ophthalmologist I shadowed is a cornea specialist so she does cornea transplants and deals with a lot of cataracts among other things. She allowed me look through the device they use and examine patients’ eyes – their cornea specifically (with permission of course). I could see stitches from cornea transplants she’d done on them, some mild cataracts in some patients, I was just like whooaaa! Her patient interaction was also phenomenal. That’s actually one of the things that impressed me the most. She knew her patients really well, their family life etc and always engaged in some conversation about that before beginning the exam. All in all, I enjoyed the experience and it further confirmed that I do like an aspect of longitudinal care. Also worth noting is that her patients were really diverse and also really thankful. It makes sense though, I would be really thankful too if I had problems seeing and all of a sudden could see clear as day. I was told to reach out if I would also like to shadow in the O.R. and see some surgeries. I’m definitely planning to. Ophthalmology is known for being advanced compared to other surgical specialities when it comes to the technology they use, so looking forward to seeing this.

Below are pics from google on some things I saw. Stitches in the eye from cornea transplant and some cataracts. Cool stuff! I hope you all have a good rest of the week! Stay positive. Always forward 🙂